My first trip abroad without my family being New York was a pretty daunting thought, be it the feeling only arising after the trip was booked. We few out on August 22nd after my friends mother dropped us to Heathrow and after the ten hour flight we touched down into JFK in the evening. After heading straight to an airport hotel a much needed sleep commenced and the exploration of the city had to wait till the following day. We were staying in an AirBNB apartment and decided just to explore the immediate area on our first day, get to grips with our new surroundings of Astoria. The next day was when the real “tourist” things began, of course we had to start big. The empire state of course, we just had to.

Ticket to the 102nd floor, looking out from the 102nd floor.

My friend Aimee looking out from the viewing platform.

The feeling in Manhattan was quite magical, as a lover of city living I was practically in my element. Although very different from my past experiences in large cities (notable London and Seoul) there seemed to be a different feel. London has always been so familiar, only an hour and a half on the train from Bristol, I had been so many times it is practically a second home. Seoul was very modern, and visually the most impressive city I have experienced. New York was oddly enough somewhere in the middle. Something felt very familiar while I was also in slight awe at the same time.

The Chrysler Building

I had to get a classic shot of the American flag at some point didn’t I?

I was actually worried my camera wouldn’t do very well up on the observation deck, being my very ammeter lens but I was actually pretty happy with the shots I got. Of course a few snaps of me and my two friends was a must but the more “artsy” ones turned out better than expected. as a piece of evaluation I would definitely say a better lens still would have worked better. Also, I should have experimented more with shots looking down from the structure, to the streets below. I think this was solely influenced my my lack of experience, I want very comfortable dangling my camera from all those floors above.